A Few Observations From Wednesday Night’s Celtics-Bucks Game

On Wednesday, I went to the Celtics game at the TD Bank North Garden. It was the first game I’ve been to in at least two years, so I figured I’d blog about it. Here are a few random thoughts about the Celtics, the worst player in the NBA, and the experience of being a fan at a professional sporting event.

-This game was designated as “fan appreciation night.” As far as I could tell, the only difference between this and any other night was that Paul Pierce made a brief pre-game speech thanking the fans for their support.

-The Celtics rested Pierce, Allen, Garnett, and Perkins. Smart move for them, but definitely a major disappointment for the crowd (and on fan appreciation night, no less). This left them with a starting lineup of Rondo, Mike Finley, Marquis Daniels, Glen Davis, and Rasheed Wallace, also known as the worst player in the league to actually get minutes on a playoff team.

-Rajon Rondo is a really, really good basketball player. That might seem like a pretty obvious statement, but he really impressed me. He was by far the best player on the court when he was out there, and he thoroughly outplayed Brandon Jennings, even posting him up a few times. It was all the more impressive considering his horrendous supporting cast, including:

-Rasheed Wallace. What can you say about this guy? After reading Bill Simmons’ scathing column about ‘Sheed, I observed him pretty closely in this game. Not only was he the laziest player out there, he also might have been the worst. It’s what thing to be awful at basketball, but come on man, at least make it look like you’re trying, maybe sprint down the court a couple times, crash the offensive glass, do something. Say what you will about Sheldon “The Landlord” Williams, but at least you get a sense that he’s giving it his all out there. Sheed spends most of the game jogging from one three point line to the other with the intensity of a man half-heartedly chasing down a bus he knows he can’t catch.

-Rasheed Wallace might be the worst player getting significant minutes on any playoff team, but Brian Scalabrine is probably the straight up worst player on any team in the entire league. Every time he catches the ball, the entire crowd starts yelling for him to shoot a three. He’s like that talentless kid on your high school junior varsity team’s bench who gets into the game and the parents all start cheering for him to shoot. Watching him try to guard Carlos Delfino was laughable.

Pictured: The exact opposite of basketball greatness.

-In terms of the actual experience at the Garden, the word I think best describes it is “busy.” There’s just a lot of stuff going on, before the game, during time-outs, at halftime, etc. For instance, the ridiculously hyped-up warm ups, which featured not one but two motivational songs. Every time there’s a timeout, there’s some kind of contest going on, whether it’s little kids racing toy cars, the most un-athletic people imaginable attempting to throw in half-court shots, or women in minimal clothing shooting t-shirts out of what appears to be a rocket launcher.